MoviePass flexes its muscles, Apple buys potential, and War Games is back in a new way. With special guest Daniel O’Brien.

The Summer Movie Draft is coming up! We’re looking at drafting on March 20th on Night Attack. More info soon!

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: Ep. 210 – Brian’s Fence Fort
Recorded: March 5 2018
Guest: Daniel O’Brien

Intro Video

• ON STAGE: Phoenix • Official 2D Trailer

Primary Target

• Apple scores another TV thriller, this time produced by M. Night Shyamalan
  – M. Night Shyamalan will executive produce a new psychological thriller series for Apple to be written by Tony Basgallop of 24 fame.
  – Apple lineup so far:
  – TV series from Damien Chazelle (La La Land director)
  – Amazing Stories Anthology series from Steven Spielberg
  – Space Drama from Ronald D. Moore (BSG)
  – Drama about a network morning show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon
  – Futuristic Drama from Francis Lawrence (Director of last 3 Hunger Games movies)
  – Apple just hired Angelica Guerra, Sony Pictures Television’s production leader for Latin American and US Hispanic content
  – Apple already has former Sony presidents Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg and former Sony vice presidents Max Aronson, Kim Rozenfeld and Ali Woodruff

How to Watch

• MoviePass won’t let its customers buy tickets to Red Sparrow in some markets 
  – Some MoviePass users could not use the service to buy tickets to Red Sparrow
  – Statement to SlashFilm: “We occasionally remove some films from our ticketing inventory in some markets for a limited time, similar to how we organically promote films in certain markets to better understand member behavior.”
  – Maybe trying to demonstrate not only the benefit of pluggin movies like I, Tonya or Death Wish but how it can negatively impact ticket sales as well.
  – Mitch Lowe, CEO of MoviePass was speaking to the Entertainment Finance Forum about how MoviePass monetizes data
  – “We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards.”
  – The ToS say location is only used when selecting a theater and “only be used as a means to develop, improve, and personalize the service.”

What to Watch

• Interactive ‘#WarGames’ series goes live on March 14th
  – #WarGames is a new interactive series from Eko and Her Story creator Sam Barlow, and it’s set to hit Steam, Vudu.com, HelloEko.com and the Eko iOS app on March 14th.
• Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-it Ralph 2 coming Thanksgiving.
• Netflix’s House of Cards season 6 will focus on Claire Underwood’s rule
  – A teaser for House of Cards is out basically just showing Robin Wright as Claire Underwood standing in the oval office. The show returns for its final season on Netflix this autumn.
• Syfy has renewed The Magicians for a fourth, 13-episode season, which will premiere in 2019
• And not shockingly, Netflix has renewed Black Mirror for another season
• Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Is Finally Being Turned Into a Show
  -The BBC announced it’s picked up a six-part Discworld series. Deadline says it goes under the working title The Watch. The production company founded by author Terry Pratchett, Narrativia is co-producing and Simon Allen (Das Boot, The Musketeers) may write. The Watch is supposedly a procedural crime series set in Discworld’s main city of Ankh-Morpock.
• Netflix nabs Hasan Minhaj from ‘Daily Show’ for new talk show
  – Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj will host at least 32 episodes of a weekly talk show on Netflix. The show will “explore the modern cultural and political landscapes with depth and sincerity.”

What We’re Watching

• Brian: Deadwood, Counterpart, Early Man
• Tom: Deadwood, Counterpart (107), Queer Eye, Star Wars: Rebels, The Oscars
• Daniel: The Tick, The Wire
• On the Lookout:  The Ministry of Time

Front Lines

• Netflix wins an Oscar for sports doping documentary ‘Icarus’
  – Netflix’s Mudbound did not win any Oscars, but its documentary about the Russian sports doping scandal, Icarus, won for best documentary.
• The CEO of CBS Says Streaming Is Responsible for Star Trek: Discovery’s Serialized Storytelling
  – CBS CEO Leslie Moonves says Star Trek Discovery was serialized because it went to streaming, saying ” Network television generally works better when it is not serialized.”
• Set-top box maker TiVo exploring options, could go private
  – TiVo has hired an outside firm to help it consider strategic options. This is usually what companies do before they sell. TiVo says it might just go private or merge with a larger entity or even acquire another company. The Street has previously reported that multiple buyers are interested in TiVo.
• You no longer need a TV to sign up for PlayStation Vue
  – Playstation Vue just updated its service to let users sign up on a laptop or mobile device. Before you had to have at least one device connected to a TV in order to create an account. Vue is also going to start adapting its lineup of regional sports networks and local channels based on what city you’re in.
• Comcast bids $31 billion for Sky TV, undermining Fox
  – Comcast has offered to buy European TV provider Sky TV, undermining a long-standing effort by Fox. This would stop Sky from ending up at Disney after Disney’s acquisition of Fox is approved. Meanwhile Sky reached an agreement to provide Netflix shows as part of its service including the Netflix app on Sky’s Now TV boxes.
• As Disney’s streaming service nears, Netflix rolls out improved parental controls
  – Netflix announced new parental controls, including the ability to set a PIN on particular series or movies. Netflix will also display the maturity rating in the top left as the title begins to play.

Dispatches from the Front

Hello Cordkillers
After the recent news of movie pass not allowing certain movies in certain areas to be used with there service I cancelled it. No matter how much I disliked people using there service without seeing movies I found this far worse.
Now with happier news for the first time since I canceled Directv I didn’t have to sit in the kitchen to watch the Oscars. I used YouTube tv. I really enjoyed the interface.

– Kevin

 

 

Dear Tom & Brian,

First, I want to say that I support Brian’s right to be completely, totally, 100% WRONG about Black Panther. (That movie was awesome!)

The question of whether or not people actually save money by cutting the cord or just gain freedom & flexibility seems to come up rather frequently. I recently crunched the numbers and I thought I’d share.

Before cutting the cord, I had Dish Network for both internet & “cable.” It started out as a pretty good deal, but after they’d jacked the rates up several times, well, let me put it this way: I decided to cancel my Dish when they started running commercials about how DirecTV customers average $77/month, and I was paying $115/month!

My internet bill went from $60/month to $35/month for the exact same service
I added Sling @ $25/month
I added PBS Passport @ $7/month because I wanted to support them, even though I could get PBS OTA

So, I’m paying $25/month less for internet, and the two services I added to replace cable/satellite total $32/month. I’m saving $108/month! And, I can easily pause or cancel services whenever I want. I’ve actually cancelled Sling for now (between seasons of the shows I really want to watch), and I plan to switch to Philo as it offers all of the channels I want ($16/month).

Yes, I did buy a Roku, and I already had Netflix & Amazon Prime subscriptions, which I didn’t count in my totals, but they add up to a lot less than $108/month.

Thanks, guys! I couldn’t have done it without you!

Sincerely,
– Uli Dig

P.S. I used some of the money I saved to support some of my favorite podcasts. I’m the boss of you now!

 

 

Hey Guys…
Thanks for all the entertainment.
Just dropping a note on how I budget some of my TV Viewing
I use the Gift Cards for Hulu, Netflix, iTunes and prepay an year ahead.
That way I can budget for all my streaming viewing and never have to
Worry about how much I am spending on my Cord Cutting fees.

Hopefully this might help others to budget as well.

One of your many bosses

– Blair

 

 

 

Hi. I thought this worth sharing that I am now a paying customer of YouTube TV.I relied on the DVR feature to record the 90th Oscar’s apparently not many bothered to watch.Picture quality was good and I was happy YouTube was smart enough to extend the recording time without any input from me that allowed me to see the whole event.I thought for sure it would stop at the 3hr mark and I’d have to Google the best picture winner.But it worked great.

I was happy to see Shape of Water win best picture.And I’m glad I drove over 45 miles one way to see it in a theater before the Oscar’s to know it is a great film.

Have a great episode tonight.

– David

 

 

The Expanse is now in UHD on Amazon Prime Video. Might be better to wait than watch on syfy.

– Jommel

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers